Auteur : rattiesforeverworldpresscom

In the fall, I always feel like I’m fighting against the coming dark at the time of the winter solstice, and each year, I have to learn the lesson anew. This year proved particularly challenging for a few reasons. After the time changes at Daylight Savings time, and the sun starts setting at 3:30pm. It is down by 4:30 and completely dark by 5:15pm. As a homesteader, in preparation for spring planting and the winter to come, there always seems to be so much to do. Bringing in the harveset, preparing the greenhouse, preparing and clearing garden beds, stacking wood, cleaning gutters, shoring up the hen house, and doing all of the necessary multitude of other preparations for the coming winter. As the fall deepens, each day, the light continues to wane, and there is less light each day to work with. On many days when I go to work…

We find ourselves, yet again, in the middle of the « holiday season » where the emphasis has drifted away from families and is now on cheap deals, plasma televisions, and the amassing of various piles of stuff. Against the cultural push of this frenzied time, I wanted to take some time to reflect upon alternatives to materialism and challenge the underlying values that materialism promotes.

Holiday Shopping Spree–the lights are pretty, but not all that glitters is gold

What is materialism? Materialism, in the simplest terms, is an obsession with « stuff, » particularly, the acquisition of stuff as a way to promote and maintain self-image. This « stuff » includes consumer goods, like name brand watches, plasma televisions, vehicles, the latest fashionable clothing, even down to smaller things, like purchasing that new pair of shoes you just have to have but don’t need. I’d also argue that it extends to things like…

The River Thames is 346 kilometres long. It flows from the source at Kemble, near Cirencester, and ends in the North Sea near Southend-on-Sea, in Essex.

The River Thames is the second longest river in the United Kingdom, behind the River Severn. It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire and flows into the North Sea, passing through London, the country’s capital. The Thames also runs through towns and cities, including Reading, Oxford, and Windsor.

As the Winter Solstice is coming up quickly and the tree just went up this past week, I’ve been busy in my art studio and out on the land looking for great things to add to the Yule tree. As a druid who is deeply concerned about the amount of plastic and « throw away‘ quick purchase items, like cheap plastic ornaments, I didn’t want to buy any ornaments for the tree, but rather, to make them from wildcrafted materials. So today, I wanted to share two simple ways to make nice ornaments for a Yule tree from natural materials and simple tools.

Handmade Stag and Pentacle Tree Topper with Handmade Ornaments

Painted or Burned Wooden Round Ornaments

One simple method for creating ornaments is a painted or woodburned wood rounds. These are simple slices of wood that you can decorate in a variety of ways–painting them, burning…

What does healthy look like? Have you ever wondered that? You could add in whatever word you wanted after the word healthy and I still don’t know that I could answer those questions. What does a healthy _______ (relationship, childhood, friendship, parent,…) look like? I think it is easy to spot unhealthy things outside of ourselves. For example we can look at a relationship where there is an abusive spouse. All of us can see that it is not a healthy relationship but the person being abused would often disagree with you. They know things are rough at times but their relationship is not unhealthy. They are just riding the wave through the rough patch and then it will all be okay.

Another way to look at it is trying to understand how accurate your view of yourself is in reality. If you are crazy do you know you are…

What does healthy look like? Have you ever wondered that? You could add in whatever word you wanted after the word healthy and I still don’t know that I could answer those questions. What does a healthy _______ (relationship, childhood, friendship, parent,…) look like? I think it is easy to spot unhealthy things outside of ourselves. For example we can look at a relationship where there is an abusive spouse. All of us can see that it is not a healthy relationship but the person being abused would often disagree with you. They know things are rough at times but their relationship is not unhealthy. They are just riding the wave through the rough patch and then it will all be okay.

Another way to look at it is trying to understand how accurate your view of yourself is in reality. If you are crazy do you know you are…

The Sound Of Silence

By Disturbed

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence